There are certain perks that come along with being a sports reporter. Sometimes, when I’m sitting courtside at a sporting event, I look around at all the people who paid hard-earned money to watch the game that I am being paid to cover.

That’s a pretty cool gig.

Thursday night at Barton Coliseum, when the Pottsville Apaches claimed a 54-50 victory over Pine Bluff Dollarway for the Class 4A boys state championship, I looked around at 4,000 fans screaming in the arena and I looked down the line of press and radio personnel that flanked the basketball court. I felt extremely lucky.

It was my first time covering a state championship game, and it was an experience I won’t soon forget. Not only did I have the opportunity to brush elbows with other sports journalists, I had the opportunity to join the team before they ever left Pottsville High School. I made the trip from the front of their bus and stopped to eat dinner with them on the way up.

I didn’t say much on the trip. Instead, I watched. I paid attention to the things the kids said and the things they did on the trip.

There was a strange sort of calm that emanated from the Apaches from the moment I walked into George Jones Gymnasium to the moment I left them at Barton Coliseum to take my place courtside.

No matter what the kids felt, what they displayed can only described as calm determination. When they emerged from the gym to board the bus, a miniature pep rally greeted them. High fives were given, as well as hugs and a small speech, but by and large the Apaches stood quiet, watching the events unfold around them.

Overwhelmed, perhaps? Or perhaps they knew there was still work to be done. The task before them wasn’t an easy one — and head coach Shane Thurman made that abundantly clear.

The bus ride was quiet. Many players read or played on their phones. Some chatted about baseball. But mostly there was a resounding silence, the sort of silence you often find just before chaos — like a shoreline before a storm.

“You wouldn’t think they were on their way to play for a title,” Thurman told me as we got off the bus in Conway to eat dinner.

The team became more lively the closer we got to Barton Coliseum.

From there, I lost track of them. There were a couple hours before their game. They had their preparations to make and so did I. When I saw them next, they were taking the court against a gigantic, athletic-looking Pine Bluff Dollarway team.

The reporter from the Pine Bluff Commercial told me the Cardinals had not scored more than 51 points all postseason. And that held true after the game way over.

But that wasn’t the stat that gave the Apaches the game. At least, not in my opinion. Pottsville pulled down more rebounds against a team that towered over them on the basketball court. That and accurate free-throw shooting undid Dollarway and gave Pottsville its first basketball state title.

When Michael Perry made his steal, I was sitting under the basket with my camera. Perry was fouled on the way to the basket, but I caught a picture of him just after, as he turned to head back toward the bench.

Perry told me at that moment, it started to hit him that they had won the game. Even though my photo doesn’t show his face, when I look at it I can almost see the excitement as he jogged back toward his teammates.

The Cardinals needed at least two possessions to take the state championship away from the Apaches. It didn’t happen.

I had thought the calm-enducing chaos I mentioned would be the game. I was wrong. The storm broke the moment the final buzzer went off.

Thurman threw his hands in the air. A student fell to the ground in disbelief. Several players openly wept.

The job was done.

“Lord knows they deserve it,” I heard someone say. “They’ve been playing together since they were five.”

Certainly they deserve it, but not just on account of how long they’ve played together. They deserve it like any David deserves to behead his Goliath. They deserve it for all the hard work and talent that floats between them.

“It felt like the stars aligned,” Thurman said in the nearly empty bus just before heading back to Pottsville, as hundreds of congratulatory texts poured in.

Maybe they did align, I thought.

That moment was made for the Pottsville Apaches — and it always will be.